Conservative Heroes: Fourteen Leaders Who Shaped America, from Jefferson to Reagan [Hardcover]

“A wonderful book.”—Fred Barnes

“Reserves a special place for Tucker in the pantheon of political authors.”—National Review Online

“Many readers resent the narrowness standard histories offer. They will welcomeConservative Heroes, which so thoughtfully draws out the full picture.”—Amity Shlaes

“A missing history of conservatism.”—The American Conservative

“A very accessible account of what American conservatism is, and has done.”—Chronicles

Conservatism in America, as one early-twentieth-century politician said, is “as old as the Republic itself.” But what are its foundational principles, and how did they form the modern conservative movement?

Author Garland S. Tucker III tells the story in this lively look at fourteen champions of conservative thought—some well known, others hardly remembered at all. Taking readers on an exciting tour from the American Founding to the modern era, Tucker traces the development of conservatism’s basic tenets and shows how leaders put principle into action (some more successfully than others).

Conservative Heroesoffers brief but penetrating profiles of:

• The Founders who agreed on the two primary purposes of government—but differed on how best to achieve the balance between them
• The pair of nineteenth-century congressional leaders who fought to preserve the founding vision of a limited national government
• The towering statesman whose defense of slavery has obscured his considerable contributions to American constitutional history
• The last Democratic president to advance conservative principles
• The president and treasury secretary who together reduced taxes and the size of the federal government—and spl³Ž